As many may know, the 2024 – 2025 school year is ACC’s 50th year in existence. As a way to honor the history of our building, let’s look back at ACC’s development and early years that sprouted from Arlington’s plans for the future in 1974.
In 1975, ACC’s main goal, of course, was to serve as a community center. Its target audience was people of all ages, and its goal was to service them in the ways they needed the most. Whether that was providing help with resume writing, filing taxes, or even learning how to speak English, the Arlington Career Center could help. There was also the option of taking classes at ACC. Of course, you had your classes for adults, including the aforementioned English classes, as well as economics classes, typing classes, and some vocational classes such as carpentry and cosmetology training that ACC ran as night classes.
But what truly made, and continues to make, ACC special was the accessibility that APS students had to all of these classes, opportunities, and more. Just like today, junior and senior APS students were given access to transportation that would take them to ACC to take what we now call CTE classes. These trade-focused classes included anything from bricklaying and masonry to hospitality and early-childhood education. A huge motivation for encouraging APS students to take classes at ACC was due to Arlington Public Schools facing the issue of increasing dropout rates. County officials believed that integrating the option of taking vocational classes would lower this rate. As a result, the plans for the Arlington Career Center were formed.
Many of the classes that were available are still classes that Arlington Tech offers today. That is not the only similarity between ACC in 1975 and the Career Center we know today. The ability to get certified in the many trade opportunities that Arlington Career Center offered was something that made the new program all the more appealing. After all, that was the entire point of the Arlington Career Center to begin with.
All in all, the Arlington County Board spent 4.6 million dollars on the three-building complex, then called Arlington Career Center in its entirety, but we now call the three separate buildings Arlington Montessori, Arlington Career Center, and the Columbia Pike Library. However, in 1975, the included buildings were actually known as Patrick Henry Elementary, the Human Resources Center, and the Technical Career Center and the County Library. After 50 years, the Arlington Career Center complex is going through another change.
When we reflect on what this building has allowed so many different people to accomplish, it makes turning our backs and looking toward the future all the more bittersweet. For students this year, we are constantly reminded of the passing of time and the subsequent voiding of our building by the new construction on our doorstep. I would urge everyone to take a moment of appreciation for the truly special environment we’ve created here at Arlington Tech. Since ACC’s opening day, the goal has been to expose students to experts in a multitude of job fields and provide many opportunities that are actually applicable to their lives and futures. The reality that the new school brings will be one that can bring all those opportunities to a far larger group of people. The future impact of the new ACC building is far greater than we know yet.
